"You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." --2 Corinthians 3:3
- Created By ink.black.sky
10 Years of Puzzles...
10 Years of Puzzles, Problems and One Precarious Princess
My ode to the 10th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Ten years past would have found two very eager little girls, flanking their just-as-eager father as they slowly explored the unfolding treasures of a video game. How something so nonsensical could steal away an adult and two children for very nearly a year is still something intriguing to me. And yet, looking back on those days, I realize that I was never happier. And it was all thanks to a little toe-head named Link.
When you think of the stereotypical 6 year old girl, one might picture a little girl, with dimpled cheeks stealing kisses from boys on the playground. I’d like to think my sister and I were not those typical, little girls. Bearing in mind I spent a considerable amount of time sitting in time-out during recess and my older, and wiser, twin ran around the playground (which has since been bulldozed into a parking lot, I might add, just for the irony) playing made-up games about Pokemon—we were not the archetypal first graders. And so, when Christmas rolled around that year and Santa dropped off that shiny new N64, we were captivated.
Needless to say when the massacred pieces of gift wrap had been cleared away that morning, we explored our new gaming system. When the now infamous music cued up, we didn’t know what we were in for. Most certainly not to take part in playing probably the most influential game ever made.
For anyone who has played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you know of what I speak; because you have undoubtedly spent a mind-numbing amount of time trying desperately to beat that game. As I recall, we spent the majority of Christmas vacation trying—and failing despairingly—at finding that thing they called a sword, which in retrospect was just an overgrown butter knife.
Finally, after weeks of failed attempts finding that blasted piece of metal, and trying everything imaginable, my dad crawled into that cave, and found the sword. And declared it to be too easy. He then introduced us to our good friend, The Great Deku Tree. A laughable character, because, seriously if you can’t laugh at a giant, talking tree what can you laugh at?
Even more funny was the ensuing wannabe-voice acting my father started. He gave the Tree a voice, and not just a voice, a gnarled, English accent with a hacking cough, and a slight lisp. That voice will forever be synonymous with a night full of giggles and warding off evil. I have only heard my father use that ‘voice’ for one other occasion: at a youth retreat where he was supposed to be scaring teenagers about the effects of sin, death and hell; but, he used that voice and it took all I could not to burst out laughing right then and there. But, that’s another story for another time.
As we explored the deep recess of that tree, we found that I am a complete and utter incompetent when it comes to video games. The few times we pried my dad away from the controller I died, or screwed it up so badly that it deterred me from ever being able to play video games well, even now 10 years later. Therefore, I will forever be The Technical Advisor. The puzzle solver extraordinaire, and the one who could quote the Players Guide [or “Cheat Book” as we’ve dubbed it] word-for-word. Any random bit of information about the game? I know it. The only thing I’m good at is beating Gohma. I hold the record for shortest time beating Gohma. 7 seconds, by the way.
My sister and dad have this ongoing rivalry—which goes on to this day—about who is better at playing the game. I kid you not. They race each other. They erase the two bottom memory slots on the game [they refuse to erase the so-called ‘master file’, which affectionately is comprised of all our first initials] and name the file something like “DA BOMB” or “DA REAL BOMB”. It’s utterly ridiculous. And yet so funny. They play the game neck-in-neck and talk smack to each other. And as I type this, they are bringing up past races, and razzing each other over the fact that Dad beat the game the first go round, or that my sister had to beat Bongo-Bongo for my dad during one of their numerous competitions. They keep laughing about how this time it will be The Race. Where they’ll time each other, and not die at any given moment during the game.
I don’t really know what makes Zelda the—in my opinion—best game ever. Perhaps it’s the dynamic game play, or the unforgettable characters, or some other force; but, I do know that I will forever love it for bringing my family together: for keeping us up late at night with its beguiling puzzles, and for making us spit up whatever fizzy drink we happened to be sipping whenever someone did some epic move. Whatever that unknown, and splendid force was that so adhered us to that game is something that will captivate audiences for years to come. And, I’m just lucky enough to say that it hit my generation first, and we’ve never been the same since.
Razia's Shadow: A Musical
So this really has nothing to do with anything, but I found this CD on iTunes a couple of days ago, and have only stopped listening to it for school and church. It's seriously awesome, and worth the 12 dollars and 7 hours it took for me to acquire it.
Forgive Durden, the leading band, acquired a ridiculously talented cast of singers to portray the characters in the makeshift musical. My sister and I swooned at the song with Brendon Urie [Panic at the Disco] and Thomas Dutton [Forgive Durden]. It's really good, and kind of wierd; but, something about the tune and beat makes it completely impossible to stop listening. Narrarated by the mellow voice of Aaron Weiss, mewithoutYou, and also boasting the vocal talents of Chris Conley [Saves the Day], and Greta Salpeter [The Hush Sound] this CD was definately worth the ungodly download time on my slow dial-up.
Top Ten Reasons Why Ink Loves Impromptu Fieldtrips.
1. We get out of government class.
2. Who doesn't love going to Dollar Tree?
3. And Dollar General?
4. And playing with the fake gun toys therein.
5. And it was all for Opertation Christmas Child [sending toys and other things in shoeboxs to children in poor coutnries] so we didn't feel guilty about it.
6. The ability to harass unsuspecting bystanders by rolling down the windows in the van and yelling random things at them.
7. No governemt class, have I mentioned that?
8. McDonalds. It's a reason in and of itself.
9, McDonald's ice tea. Epic win.
10. No government class.
Anyways. So my government class convinced our teacher to let us go shopping for our Shoebox Ministry this morning, and we got a lunch at McDonalds out of it, as well as being saved from the boringness that is government class. We did have a lot of fun. Aside from the fact that it was raining cats and dogs and so we all were soaking wet, and so I slipped and fell in Dollar General and twisted my bad knee, and therefore was carried around the store. We bought our Algebra teacher ice tea and french fries, so we're suck-ups, too. She still made us do Algebra, though. Oh wells. So, that was my adventure for the day...
I had my cake, and I ate it, too!
Anyways, so I helped out at a missions supper thing at the church last night. I say last night because it's like 1 in the morning now, therefore it was 'last night'. And now I'm rambling, so back to my original story. So, the student leaders were recruited into helping out at this thing. It was a service and a dinner where a whole bunch of missionaries came in and had tables set up showing their ministries and stuff, it was actually pretty cool. So, we all served these people and went back into the kitchen. I had to wash ALL of the silverware. Ok, so I volunteered to wash the untensils, because I figured no one else would and I should releave the lady who was catoring the event and helping the waiters clean. The plus of that set-up was the lady who catored also happens to be my government teacher, and so because I washed all 300+ untensils, and some gravy bowls, and plates, and serving spoons, I will [God willing] get extra credit for government. [laughing] The moral of this portion of the story is: Always help your teachers outside of the classroom, because it could be fortuitous. Onto the next part of my story. The Pumpkin Cake. The dessert for the dinner was this really awesome smelling pumpkin cake. The serves all wanted to just steal it and eat it ourselves instead of giving it to the people who actually paid for their dinner. So my teacher let us eat the leftovers, so everyone helped themselves while I was still slaving away at the sink, up to my elbows in gravy-laden forks. The only plate of pumpkin cake left was probably enough to feed a small army. I was bet 5 dollars that I couldn't eat the whole thing. "But you're so tiny, you'll never be able to do it." Don't bet against all 5 feet 110 pounds of Ink. Seriously. I ate that whole dang thing, and enjoyed and, and am suffering the stomach ache for it now. BUT, here's the catch with me eating it, I didn't want to make another fork dirty, and I voiced this to my friends. So, my pieces of cake got piled high with whipped cream, one of my best guy friends went and got his camera and took a picture of me shoving my face into this cake. It was all over my face, up my nose everything. It's been several hours since this incident and everytime I take a deep breath I smell cinnamin and pumpkin. Moral of this part of the story: If a guy bets you 5 bucks that you can't eat a huge piece of cake, and you win this bet with flair, make sure not to be a nice person and let him keep his money. Collect the 5 dollars. And don't be stupid like me, and let that boy keep his money, and then taunt me later when he finds out that I was feeling ill because of the copious amounts of cake I had consumed. How's that for an alliteration?! Ok, and now I seriously need to go to bed. Night, night.
Homecoming.
It's homecoming day today. Yipee. All of our teachers have given us the day off today to decorate, and make food and as of right now be lazy, hang around facebook, listen to music and pretend like we're being productive.
Because my school's a Christian school, we're not allowed to dance, so we don't have some big formal affair where we get all dolled up and all that crap. No, we're playing blood-and-guts volleyball. I'm excited. Our theme this year [we have one every year] is The Wonderful World of Disney, so we can come dressed up as our favourite Dinsey characters. So I'm dressed up like Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dam. At least I was, I kind of ditched my skirt and peasant blouse a while ago and am currently running around in shorts and a jacket I stole from my friend because the tank I wore under my shirt is out of dress-code.
Tonight should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Not much else to say other than that. Life's been kind of boring on my end. Oh wells. I'll update when something new and exciting happens.
